A planned speech by controversial Breitbart.com editor Milo Yiannopoulos was delayed Friday evening before a man in the crowd outside the University of Washington venue was shot in the abdomen.

Seattle fire officials were first to describe the 25-year-old victim's injuries as life-threatening. The university urged people to avoid that area of campus near Red Square, which had seen a large police presence much of the night.

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Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg said the victim arrived at the hospital at 9 p.m. and that he was in surgery.

Officials did not say whether they had a suspect in custody, but the university tweeted a description of a possible shooting suspect: Asian male, 50 years old, 5-foot-7, 190 pounds, no facial hair, yellow cap, black jacket.

The shooting and accompanying violence outside the Yiannopoulos event marred what had been a long day of peaceful protest in the streets of Seattle.

Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O'Toole told a late-night press conference that there had been "no arrests, no serious injuries, very little use of force by police and several successful demonstrations of free speech" before the UW incident.

"Seattle has a long, proud tradition of speaking up and speaking out, but we will not tolerate violence of any kind, against any person," Mayor Ed Murray said in a written statement Friday night. "Thousands of Seattleites, including myself, will speak up and march peacefully throughout this weekend."

The shooting came almost an hour after officials stopped allowing entry to people with tickets for the Kane Hall lecture by Yiannopoulos, a leading white nationalist figure who has been banned from Twitter for harassment. The event had been oversold, as Yiannopoulos's supporters and detractors scrambled to pack the speech.

Hundreds of ticket holders were lined up for hours before the scheduled start of the event, which was coordinated by the UW College Republicans. As more self-described pro-peace and anti-fascist protesters flooded Red Square over time, occasional clashes broke out among the different camps.

Outside the event, UW graduate student and Trump supporter James Penna said he had hoped to get in to see Yiannopoulos. Penna, 24, said he isn't a fan but looked forward to confronting the provocateur.

"I was denied something I was looking forward to," Penna said.

"I don't like Milo," he continued, "but I wanted to interrogate him."

Yiannopoulos eventually put on his presentation, finishing up around 9:15 p.m., but the half-full crowd that watched him was asked to remain inside while the protesters outside were given a chance to disperse.

The crowd outside was dotted with a mix of red "Make America Great Again" caps and black-hooded, masked individuals affiliated with the "anti-fascist" detractors of Trump and Yiannopoulos.

Those gathered in Red Square represented a juxtaposition of ideologies, alternately chanting "USA" and "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA." Signs read, "Celebrate patriarchy" and "Smash gay nationalism - queers fight back." At one point, opposing camps chanted a call and response of "Black lives matter" and "Blue lives matter." Each side called the other fascists.

The ticket-holding crowd appeared mostly male and occasionally traded barbs with protesters, saying things like "Get a job" and "Get back in the kitchen." Detractors were mostly peaceful, but Seattle police tweeted that several objects, from paint-filled balloons to bricks, were being thrown into the crowd and at officers.

UW campus police were being assisted by Seattle cops at the event.

Fans of Yiannopoulos said they liked him not necessarily for any policy ideas, but because of his brash and offensive statements and his role as an entertainer.

UW freshman Christopher Newell, wearing a Make America Great Again cap, said he liked his anti-political correctness stance and called him a "provocateur."

Newell said that political debate and the exchange of ideas are repressed on college campuses.

"Hate speech is just a silly myth," he said of Yiannopoulos's offensive statements. "Even if a view is hateful, it should still be allowed."

Senior Truman Plaisted agreed.

"I like that he's offensive for the sake of being offensive," Plaisted said, also wearing a Make America Great Again cap, as well as a "Token's Lives Matter" T-shirt. Plaisted does not particularly like Trump but is a fan of Yiannopoulos.

He said he liked that Yiannopoulos was less about politics and more about outrageous style.

"He's hilarious," he said.

His friend, junior student Will Shanahan, said Yiannopoulos is an entertainer and intentionally angers people to get attention.

"He's more of a populist than anything," Shanahan said. "He's not a true conservative."

His role of entertainer is what irks Chris Vance, opponent to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) in 2016 and former chairman of the Washington State Republican Party.

""The Republican Party is not a protest movement," Vance said in a phone conversation with seattlepi.com Thursday evening. "It shouldn't be about being outrageous and insulting and pulling stunts.

"This guy is profane and disrespectful and outrageous," he added of Yiannopoulos. "It's all a show."

Anti-Trump and anti-Yiannopoulos protesters gradually streamed into Red Square and managed to link arms to block off ticket holders' entry into the event after only a few dozen were admitted. From there, after police blocked off entry entirely, a tense standoff ensued, at times peaceful but with a few physical scuffles breaking out at the gate.

Competing chants erupted of "Shut it down" and "Let us in."

The socialist-backed march that traveled from Westlake Center via Capitol Hill joined the UW gathering about 8:25 p.m., not long before the shooting occurred. Police allowed the crowd to remain after the shooting, even as the shooter remained at large. Ultimately, protesters outnumbered pro-Yiannopoulus attendees as they scattered over time.

Yiannopoulos' planned joint appearance with notorious pharmaceutical investor Martin Shkreli was cancelled last week at the University of California at Davis after protesters prevented it.

Bad weather prompted the cancellation of another Yiannopoulos speech at Washington State University, scheduled for Thursday night.